Title Zandra Rhodes’ ‘Works of Art’ (1979 - 1988): From Feminine Frills to Goddess Saris Type Article URL https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/9043/ Dat e 2 0 1 6 Citation Gramstadt, Marie-Therese (2016) Zandra Rhodes’ ‘Works of Art’ (1979 - 1988): From Feminine Frills to Goddess Saris. Costume, 50 (2). pp. 244-264. ISSN 0590-8876 Cr e a to rs Gramstadt, Marie-Therese Usage Guidelines Please refer to usage guidelines at http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/policies.html or alternatively contact [email protected] . License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives Unless otherwise stated, copyright owned by the author This is the Author’s Accepted Manuscript, the final record is published by Taylor and Francis and is available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/05908876.2016.1165954 The correct citation is: Gramstadt, Marie-Therese (2016) Zandra Rhodes’ ‘Works of Art’ (1979 - 1988): From Feminine Frills to Goddess Saris. Costume, 50 (2). ISSN 0590-8876 Zandra Rhodes’ ‘Works of Art’ (1979 - 1988): From Feminine Frills to Goddess Saris By MARIE-THERESE GRAMSTADT By 1979 the British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes (b. 1940) was well established and internationally renowned for her colourful hand screen-printed silk chiffon crinoline dresses. The femininity of her chiffon dresses ensured their continuation as best-sellers beyond 1979, however little has been written about her other dress designs during the 1980s. During this period Rhodes introduced new styles including her heavily beaded ‘exotic tunics’ and designer saris worn over hip panniers. Zandra Rhodes’ designs were perceived as feminine when worn by the designer herself, her models and her clientele; and represented as feminine in their portrayal in magazines and newspapers at the time. Using original records held in the Zandra Rhodes Archives, London, as well as material gathered during The Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection project (Jisc, 2011- 2013), this article examines the period 1979 - 1988 within a framework of feminine representation and also considers Rhodes’ proposition that her designs are ‘works of art’. KEYWORDS: Zandra Rhodes, fashion, textiles, 1980s, femininity, gender, British, twentieth century, sari Page 1 of 33 pages This is the Author’s Accepted Manuscript, the final record is published by Taylor and Francis and is available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/05908876.2016.1165954 The correct citation is: Gramstadt, Marie-Therese (2016) Zandra Rhodes’ ‘Works of Art’ (1979 - 1988): From Feminine Frills to Goddess Saris. Costume, 50 (2). ISSN 0590-8876 INTRODUCTION The British fashion and textile designer Dame Zandra Rhodes (b. 1940) has designed collections every year since launching her first solo collection in 1969. She is known especially for silk chiffon dresses cut to reflect the shape of her hand screen-printed textile designs, for making a feature of outside seams, and for her 1977 Conceptual Chic Collection which remade punk as glamorous high fashion. Rhodes describes her couture garments as ‘works of art’; the artistic process that leads to their creation includes sketchbooks filled with inspiration, designs for the textile print, the actual garment, and the mapping of the hand-made textile to the wearer’s body. Her couture dresses are also considered works of art by others including the American artist Barbara Nessim (b. 1939) and Australian photographer Robyn Beeche (1945-2015) who photographed her dresses for the book The Art of Zandra Rhodes (1984).1 Rhodes’ decision to archive her ‘works of art’ reached its culmination with the founding of the Fashion and Textile Museum, London, officially opened in May 2003. This article discusses the different forms of femininity that were represented in Rhodes’ ‘works of art’ during the period 1979 to 1988 by considering four garments which characterized her work during this time.2 They are: a classic crinoline dress (79/106), a gold pleated evening jacket from the 1981 ‘Modern Renaissance Look’ collection, a heavily beaded ‘exotic tunic’ (85/196) and the designer sari (December 1987 and July 1988).3 Page 2 of 33 pages This is the Author’s Accepted Manuscript, the final record is published by Taylor and Francis and is available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/05908876.2016.1165954 The correct citation is: Gramstadt, Marie-Therese (2016) Zandra Rhodes’ ‘Works of Art’ (1979 - 1988): From Feminine Frills to Goddess Saris. Costume, 50 (2). ISSN 0590-8876 According to fashion theorist Jennifer Craik in her book The Face of Fashion, femininity is related to both the body - ‘being female’, and to the construction of gender - ‘being feminine’; it is ‘characterised by techniques of display and projection of the female body’.4 A frill could be considered feminine because its curves reflect the curves of the female body in contrast to the angularity of the male body. 5 The frill is a recurring motif in Rhodes’ ‘works of art’, whether the pleated frills of screen-printed satin and gold lamé jackets, or the frilled ‘lettuce’ edging of jersey tops and dresses, and textile prints with names like ‘Frilly’ and ‘Frilly Flower’.6 During the 1980s notions of femininity were changing; there was an increasing sense of female power and confidence, but also a romantic sensibility that influenced both men and women. The style of the ‘New Romantics’ emerged in the early 1980s: ‘elaborate combinations of real and imagined past styles, painting their faces to enhance fantasy and artifice, their escape from the natural.’7 Caroline Evans and Minna Thornton in their book Women & Fashion: A New Look, describe how the artifice of fashion ‘transforms the “raw” of woman into the “cooked” of femininity’.8 Rhodes’ own body is the ‘raw’ of woman as she places the paper version of her textile design on her body to begin the construction of a fashion garment.9 Rhodes and her famous clientele: including Diana, Princess of Wales (1961 - 1997) and actresses such as Elizabeth Taylor (1932 - 2011), further emphasise the femininity of her designs. They displayed the natural Page 3 of 33 pages This is the Author’s Accepted Manuscript, the final record is published by Taylor and Francis and is available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/05908876.2016.1165954 The correct citation is: Gramstadt, Marie-Therese (2016) Zandra Rhodes’ ‘Works of Art’ (1979 - 1988): From Feminine Frills to Goddess Saris. Costume, 50 (2). ISSN 0590-8876 femininity of Rhodes’ designs by lending their internationally recognised glamour to carefully constructed fashionable styles. The period 1979 – 1988 in Rhodes’ career has received relatively little attention in contrast to her earlier work. Ten years after Rhodes’ first solo collection, she was a well-established designer in the United Kingdom, and her business with the United States was booming. In 1979 Rhodes was one of twenty-five fashion designers invited to contribute a complete fashion look, with accessories, to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) British Fashion Designers exhibition, which was their ‘first exhibition devoted exclusively to contemporary British fashion’.10 1988 marked another turning point for Rhodes with the UK premiere of her Indian Saree Designer Collection and the completion of her involvement with The Festival of India in Japan. The following year represented the start of a new chapter as Rhodes’ Mayfair shop (14a Grafton Street, London, W1), which had been open since 1975, closed.11 RESEARCH METHODS This research owes much to Rhodes’ meticulous preservation of her design material; she has kept a sample of every design produced since 1969. Records of designs are kept in the Style Bibles and given unique codes called Style Numbers which consist of the last two digits of the year of design with a running number sequence.12 The Style Numbers are cross-referenced with the pattern in the Textile Design Name Bibles to make a garment. Over time the Style Bibles have become an important historical record showing Page 4 of 33 pages This is the Author’s Accepted Manuscript, the final record is published by Taylor and Francis and is available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/05908876.2016.1165954 The correct citation is: Gramstadt, Marie-Therese (2016) Zandra Rhodes’ ‘Works of Art’ (1979 - 1988): From Feminine Frills to Goddess Saris. Costume, 50 (2). ISSN 0590-8876 how the collections were formed. Through The Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection project (Jisc, 2011-13), digitized copies of both the Style Bibles and Textile Design Name Bibles were made available online alongside the digital images and records for 500 dresses.13 For this article additional research was conducted into Rhodes’ press books (UK and international magazine and newspaper clippings), postcards, posters and fashion show invitations held in the Zandra Rhodes Archives in London.14 This article also discusses the author’s own experience of handling the garments during the project, directed by Rhodes, and informed by Frances Diplock, Production Manager, who has worked for Rhodes since 1976. These sources have been underpinned with a thorough search of the University for the Creative Arts’ library catalogue, journals, newspapers, American Vogue, image databases and other online content covering the period 1979 to 1988. ZANDRA RHODES’ ‘WORKS OF ART’ The term ‘works of art’ is used by Rhodes throughout her Style Bibles to denote her couture fashion collections. It is not used for ready-to-wear or for collections where she has licensed her name. Rhodes’ clear distinction between couture and ready-to-wear may be inspired by her mother, Beatrice, who was a senior lecturer in the Fashion Department at Medway College of Art, Kent, UK, and had been a fitter at Parisian haute couture house Worth.15 Page 5 of 33 pages This is the Author’s Accepted Manuscript, the final record is published by Taylor and Francis and is available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/05908876.2016.1165954 The correct citation is: Gramstadt, Marie-Therese (2016) Zandra Rhodes’ ‘Works of Art’ (1979 - 1988): From Feminine Frills to Goddess Saris.